What's Your Motive for Giving?

Believe it or not, God judges our good deeds by our motives. People are impressed with large donations or meritorious actions but the Lord isn't. As I've written before, trying to fool God is like hiding behind a barbed wire fence.

The first-century Pharisees obeyed the law to the letter. In fact, they piled rules on top of rules just in case they accidentally violated a commandment. Jesus sure had something to say about their fake and self-serving piety in Matthew 23:23 (BBE). "A curse is on you, scribes and Pharisees, false ones! for you make men give a tenth of all sorts of sweet-smelling plants, but you give no thought to the more important things of the law, righteousness, and mercy, and faith; but it is right for you to do these, and not to let the others be undone."

I also heartily agree with John MacArthur about the widow's donation of all the money she had. It isn't a lesson in sacrificial giving but a sad example of religious extortion by the temple rulers. Luke 21:1-3 (BBE) comes immediately after Christ's condemnation of the corruption of the temple rulers. "And looking up, he saw the men of wealth putting their offerings in the money-box. And he saw a certain poor widow putting in a farthing. And he said, 'Truly I say to you, This poor widow has given more than all of them.:"

It was after that incident when Jesus foretold the destruction of the temple and its crooked practices in AD70. This corruption was also the reason Christ cleared the temple of the livestock sellers twice.

The kind of giving Christ approved of is recorded in Matthew 6:1-4 BBE). "Take care not to do your good works before men, to be seen by them; or you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. When then you give money to the poor, do not make a noise about it, as the false-hearted men do in the Synagogues and in the streets, so that they may have glory from men. Truly, I say to you, They have their reward. But when you give money, let not your left hand see what your right hand does: So that your giving may be in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will give you your reward."

I'll be writing more about the motive for giving, and believing in Christ, in my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? People think they can fool God but they're the fools.

When Saturday comes, I hope to publish about caring for derelict people. Christ had a special heart for the poor.